


See You See Me

by SomberSecrets



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: An Excessive Amount of Pictures, Chat Knows About The Pictures, Chat is a dork, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Jealousy, Marichat, Marinette has so many photos of Adrien, Pre-Relationship, Romance, Teasing, adrienette - Freeform, pre-reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 16:14:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18594844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomberSecrets/pseuds/SomberSecrets
Summary: Chat Noir had found his new favourite past time-- staring at the pictures of Adrien Agreste on Marinette’s wall… walls. There were a lot of them.





	See You See Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Saikonas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saikonas/gifts).



The first time that Chat Noir had burst into Marinette’s room, he nearly floored himself, because holy crap, Adrien Agreste was freaking everywhere. Where she had managed to source all of the pictures from, he couldn’t even fathom, but they covered nearly every surface of every wall and then some more. And as far as Chat could tell, none of them were repeated.

Under the scrutiny of his own radiant, carefree, and dreamy eyes, Chat hadn’t been able to say a word to Marinette about all the posters as she chastised him for literally dropping in. What would he even say anyways? That it was him on those walls and then throw in some teasing puns and maybe watch her combust? If Marinette didn’t kill him for that, then Ladybug definitely would for revealing himself to a civilian.

At one point during the night, after Marinette had given up on removing him from her room and had just accepted the fact that he was going to bother her throughout her evening, he had even come up with the crazy idea that maybe Marinette was Hawkmoth. Maybe she had suspected that Adrien was actually Chat Noir, her room was her crazy theory board but without the red string, and now she was going to poison him with a batch of croissants and passionfruit macarons. But then he remembered that Hawkmoth was never that subtle, that Marinette was doing the opposite of trapping him here, and honestly, he would be okay with dying if he finally got some of the famous Dupain-Cheng pastries.

He had slowly relaxed into the reality that Marinette was comfortable with a million pictures of him constantly staring down at her, yet she couldn’t string a coherent sentence around him on the best of days. He had experienced weirder after all - his own father had almost the same penchant for photos of his mother. Although, that did make Chat wonder if Marinette possessed an Adrien shaped fountain somewhere or maybe even an ornate oil painting. He had checked around after leaving her room. She did not.

 

* * *

 

“Kitty, are you trying to size yourself up against a poster?” Marinette teased from her desk chair, chin in her palm. Chat had managed to level up his visiting stats. Marinette was at a resigned acceptance.

Chat Noir’s eyebrows pulled together as he took another bite of a croissant and stared at his own life-sized face. It was the newest edition to the wall of Adrien. He didn’t even know they made life sized posters of Adrien Agreste. Maybe it was something he should bring up with Nathalie just in case someone was using his image without permission, but he would deal with that later. Right now he had larger fish to fry. “Princess… Don’t you think I’m better looking than he is.”

Marinette rolled her eyes fondly as Chat flexed a bicep, and then two before he turned back to her to beg for another croissant, his tail whipping around in need. “Of course you are kitty.” She tossed him another and he double fisted the pastries.

Chat grinned and flopped on her chaise. Marinette had somehow managed to take his edging comment and make him feel good about both of his selves.

 

* * *

 

“You’re friends with Adrien Agreste right?”

“Uh huh. But I usually refer to him just as Adrien.”

“Usually?”

“When I can manage to actually stutter it out.” Marinette was tinged a light pink.

Chat tilted his head and grinned. He finally understood her strange behaviour around him. “Ah. Does he know about the photos?”

A loud snort sounded from Marinette’s direction.

“I don’t know if that was disgusting or cute Princess.”

“Of course he doesn’t know about the photos kitty. He’d think I’m insane.”

“I’m not going to argue with that,” Chat muttered eyeing his schedule hanging from the rafters. Even he didn’t know his schedule that well. Did he really have a photoshoot planned for tomorrow at three in the morning? “If you know him, why don’t you have more actual photos of him.”

“Photos?”

“You know, photos of him and you together.”

“Oh,” Marinette blinked. Chat quirked his eyebrow at the pink that tinged her cheeks, “Well, he’s so busy all the time that any chance I get to hang out with him, I don’t really want to waste on taking the perfect selfie.”

Chat turned back to the magazine clippings on the walls. “Oh.” He hid his blush from her.

 

* * *

 

The next time Chat came by, a wall of magazine clippings and modelling pictures had been replaced by terribly shot and blurry photos of Adrien, Marinette and usually a scattering of their other classmates. Even if they weren’t the perfect selfies, the smiles on all the faces were more than perfection enough.

Chat hid the packet of the same set of printed photos back in his pocket. What in the name? At least now he didn’t need to come up with a contrived excuse of how it was that he had come to be the delivery boy of the photos.

“Where’d you suddenly get all these photos Princess?” That wasn’t his real question, but he needed to at least try to be subtle.

“Adrien brought his camera to school and to our party on the weekend. Apparently his dad just… got him one? And he wanted to take some pictures of everyone. Thank goodness he’s a model and not a photographer though.”

Chat pouted at the tease. But more important matters were at hand. “Did you like… steal the camera or something?” Chat stopped himself from slamming his head against the wall. So much for being subtle.

“No, of course I didn’t steal the camera.”

Chat snapped his head towards her and grinned. Marinette’s eyes immediately zeroed in on everything except his. She was trying to dodge the question, “Then…?”

Marinette gritted her teeth and mashed the tip of her pencil into her sketchbook as she seemed to bristle in a sense of proud shame, “I may have stolen his SD card.”

Chat barked out in laughter and threw himself on the chaise, swinging his tail in amusement.

“I returned it after!”

“Don’t make thieving a habit now, Princess!” At the silence, Chat shot back up in curiosity. Marinette had gone a shade redder and was somehow avoiding his gaze more than before, “Oh, do tell.”

 

* * *

 

There was an encroachment.

Chat stared.

Sirens in his head were blaring.

There was an encroachment on his walls.

“Marinette,” he swallowed not taking his eyes off of the picture, but instead running his claw delicately on the side of the photo, “Who is he?” Chat knew very well who he was.

Marinette looked up from her desk and looked over his shoulder at the object of his interest. “Oh him? That’s Luka. He’s the older brother of one of my friends.”

“Luka…” Saying his name made Chat’s hackles rise, “That’s not Adrien.”

“Uh… yeah. Good observation?”

Chat pattered to her side and plopped himself on the ground cross legged, hands in his lab, and rested his chin on her thigh, “Who is Luka?”

“What do you mean who is Luka? I just told you who Luka is.”

“I meant,” Chat tried hard not to hiss, “Who is Luka to you?”

The sirens only got louder as Chat watched Marinette’s cheeks colour. “He’s just a guy Chat.” He had made a mistake. He had gotten too comfortable with the status quo.

“Just a guy? Like how Adrien is ‘just a guy’ splattered all over your walls and now Luka’s ‘just a guy’ on your walls?”

Marinette sighed and leaned back in her chair, running her hands through Chat’s messy tresses in an attempt to calm him down, “No need to get prissy kitty. I didn’t realize you were such an Adrien fan boy. Luka is hardly all over my walls. It’s just one photo. There are more pictures of Nino on my walls than of Luka.”

Chat Noir at least had the gall to feel ashamed. But then he stiffened again, there wasn’t a single photo of JUST Nino on her walls.

“You’re right though, he’s not like Adrien,” she murmured slowly, her hand stilling in his tresses. Chat’s eyes glowed as he began to relax, “Luka might actually like me back.”

The sirens screeched.

Chat swallowed deeply, his ears pressing close to his head, “You… you think…” his mouth was dry, “You think that Adrien doesn’t like you?”

Marinette laughed slowly and softly fingered one of his lowered ears, “Of course he likes me Chat, we’re... friends.”

To Chat it was like the record scratch of his life.

“But Luka has made it clear that… he might… he might more than just like me.”

Chat licked his trembling lips, “A-Are you considering it?” Although he had tried to prevent it, his voice cracked.

Marinette sighed again, “You’re asking some tough questions tonight Chat.” The look on her face said it all.

 

* * *

 

Chat’s tail lashed through the air.

“Kitty, you’re going to break something if you keep going on like that,” Marinette sighed as she dragged the things on her desk just a scooch farther away from Chat’s tail of destruction.

Chat didn’t respond.

There wasn’t just one picture of Luka anymore.

No.

There were several pictures of Luka.

And even worse.

There were several pictures of Luka and Marinette. Just Luka and Marinette.

“You two seem to be getting closer.”

“Oh, he finally speaks,” Marinette mumbled amused as she rested her chin on her hand, “Tell me what’s wrong Chat, it can’t possibly be the appearance of another boy on my walls. None of this literally has to do with you.”

But it does, Chat wanted to cry as he twisted around to stare dolefully at Marinette with large green eyes. Instead his lips simply quivered. What had he done? He hadn’t thought what Adrien versus Chat must have seemed like to Marinette. Two people half-heartedly trying instead of one guy doing his best. Was his best even enough? What was he even doing here staring at her walls?

Marinette tilted her head and held out her free hand, “Come here kitty. Talk to me.”

Chat scampered over and into her warm touch. The palm of her hand and the tips of her fingers running through his hair. “I’ve… I’ve been thinking,” he swallowed the bile in his throat, “Actually, I’ve been spending too much time thinking. Too little as well. Ugg,” Chat collapsed his face into her lap, “Why have I been so stupid? What is wrong with me?”

Marinette giggled softly, “You’re not making any sense Chat.” Her fingers scratched at his scalp.

Chat looked up at her. Resolve in his eyes. He would win her heart back. And he would do it right.

“You know how you said you were considering Luka?”

“Yes?”

“Please don’t.”

And he was gone.

 

* * *

 

It had been a long while until Chat had found the time to drop back in again. He also knew that Marinette wouldn’t have been around to bother even if he somehow did pop in anyways.

However, he still knew to expect the sudden flood of Adrien photos that had invaded her space.

They were not just on her walls, but on her rafters, on her ceiling, taped to the back of her chair, decorating her chaise, and framing her mirrors.

And they weren’t just Adrien photos. They were Adrien and Marinette photos. Just Adrien and Marinette photos.

Luka no longer encroached upon his walls. The photos of Luka were safely tucked in with the collage of pictures of Marinette’s other friends that hung innocently above her desk.

“Kitty, is that you?”

Chat Noir turned toward the direction of her voice and found her sprawled out on the floor with a dopey grin on her face. “Have a good night Princess?” He looked up to where her gaze was falling and saw that she was staring at a picture of the backs of her and Adrien while they were out on a walk at the park, their hands intertwined, and their heads bowed close to simply hear each other. The soft looks on their faces were captured perfectly in the candid moment. It was one of Adrien’s favourite pictures of them too.

“Not just a good night. A great month, almost two? It’s been a long time since you’ve been by,” Marinette sighed happily and dreamily as she clutched the giant plush that he had won for her earlier that day to her chest.

“Two months,” Chat grinned as he sat down by her side. His fingers automatically went to comb the strands of her hair. It was like muscle memory to him now.

Marinette looked up at him quizzically for a moment before she grinned a wide, nearly face splitting grin, “Happy life.”

“Yeah. Happy life.”

They sat there together, with Marinette giggling happily every so often and telling Chat a story of her dates with Adrien and he would nod along as though he didn’t know perfectly well what had gone on.

“So when are you going to invite him over to see your room?”

Marinette turned her head and looked at him with a narrowed gaze and smacked his arm teasingly, “Haha, very funny kitty.”

“I think he’d like all the pictures.”

“Then he’d be crazy.”

“Then you two can be crazy together.”

Marinette giggled as she curled up on her side in a state of bliss, “Maybe.”

 

* * *

 

“Chat?” Marinette asked as she absentmindedly picked at some loose threads on the sleeve of her sweater. Her eyes were drooping from drowsiness, but she had claimed the inability to fall asleep.

Chat lifted his head from his position on the chaise, a plate of croissants balanced on his chest. It held him in place and prevented him from doing something reckless and stupid, like sweep her off her feet and carry her to bed, tucking her in with a kiss good night. After their date that very day, Marinette had remained on his mind, and suddenly Chat had found himself on her terrace, where her lights were also on. “Yes Princess?”

“Have you ever been in love?”

Chat made a sound akin to coughing up a hairball. “What brings this up Princess?” he managed to finally choke out.

Marinette simply sighed as she looked up at her walls of Adrien Agreste. “I think I’m in love,” she murmured softly.

But it was like a roar to his ears.

“Well no, that’s wrong,” Marinette giggled as Chat watched her mesmerized, “I don’t think it. I know it.”

It took all of his willpower not to return the sentiment right then and there. That would be for tomorrow.

 

* * *

 

The jig was up and he had royally screwed the pooch.

Chat quickly tumbled into Marinette’s room and to his horror, his night vision found no pictures of Adrien on her walls.

Blank, blank, blank.

All her walls were blank.

A bright light suddenly shone down on him and he winced as it flooded into his eyes. He rapidly blinked to try to get rid of the stars.

“Why didn’t you say anything Adrien?” Marinette hissed from the shadows. He jumped at the sound of her voice. For being imbued with superhuman qualities, she still managed to scare the wits out of him.

“What could I have said? ” Chat replied quickly and desperately as he held his hands up in defense. When Marinette didn’t immediately strangle him to death, he lowered them back down to his side. This was already going better than he thought it was going to go. He hadn’t had to put Ladybug on speed dial to come save his butt after all. He quickly closed the caller screen on his baton.

The interrogation light dimmed. Chat sighed in relief, “Plagg, claws in.”

Marinette looked thoroughly pissed, her arms crossed and her foot tapping on the floor. He gave her his most charming, sheepish smile, and rubbed the back of his head. This did not look like the kind of anger he could just kiss away, but maybe if he gave it some time…

“You must have thought I was crazy.”

“I mean…” Adrien muttered, eying the unfamiliar blank walls, “Just a little.”

Marinette’s angry face immediately collapsed into that of an embarrassed pout. She turned a completely different shade of red as she flopped onto her chaise with a loud thump. Adrien squawked in surprise as he made his way to her in worry. There was no need for him to be worried. “What a disaster,” Marinette cried as she curled up to turn onto her stomach and mushed her face into a soft cushion while continuing to scream nonsensically. Her hands curled up into small fists and she slammed them into the chaise by her head, her feet kicking the plush beneath her in a small tantrum.

Adrien gently patted her on the small of her back not being able to help the fact that he found her to be unbearably cute, “I mean… it’s not so bad?”

Adrien flinched ever so slightly when Marinette turned her head to glare at him, “Not so bad? Not so bad?!”

Adrien grinned, “Well… I mean for me. Really boosted my ego there.”

Marinette went back to screaming into her chaise as Adrien sat down on his rump and chuckled somewhat at her expense while still rubbing her back soothingly.

Adrien wondered how much trouble he would get into with Ladybug once he told her he had accidently revealed himself to a civilian. “You’re not like… Hawkmoth… right?”

Marinette glared at him from between the strands of her mussed up hair, “I’m going to ignore that insinuation kitty,” she puffed heatedly. She opened her mouth as though to say more, before she seemed to contemplate her words, her eyes narrowing again. Adrien swallowed nervously under her calculative gaze, before she went back to throwing a small tantrum. But for all of her pent up rage, one of her fists had stopped pounding on her poor chaise and was now bunched up tightly in his shirt, making sure that he wouldn’t leave her. Or maybe preparing to beat him down.

He would take his chances. They were okay.

 

* * *

 

Chat stared at the new wall and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “I don’t… understand…”

“What don’t you understand, kitty?” Marinette murmured softly in his embrace and pressed her face into his collarbone.

Chat’s tail waved back and forth in contemplation before it wrapped loosely around Marinette’s ankle. “These photos you have of me…”

Marinette frowned as she shifted, trying to fall back asleep in her favourite place in the world before he had to go. She hated when Adrien had to transform back in the early morning, it meant he would have to leave her soon. It didn’t matter that they would see each other again in just a few hours. Parting was always hard. This was why she always dragged Chat back into bed before he could leave, just for an additional ten minutes of cuddles. “When I redecorated, I thought it would be appropriate to have a Chat Noir wall as well.”

Chat leaned down to kiss her on the crown of her head as she yawned and rubbed her face against him, “I mean yes, very appropriate, I love it. But… did you… steal from Ladybug or something?”

“What makes you say that?” Marinette murmured allowing her eyes to drift open as she shifted to look up at him.

Chat tilted his head, “The background of all the photos don’t look… civilian… if you catch my drift.” He was staring at one particular photo were he was right side up… but the Eiffel tower was upside down.

Marinette snorted softly and curled into him, “I didn’t steal from Ladybug, Chadrien.”

Chat snickered at the mash of his names Marinette often used when she was tired, “Did you like… ask her for the photos then? Or did she give them to you? She knows you know about me. Gave me a huge lecture about how you could have been Hawkmoth. It was scary.”

Marinette let her lips quirk in amusement, “No.”

“Then how…?”

“Secret,” Marinette dawdled with a slight lilt to her voice.

Chat choked as he stared down at her in dread, “Who did you steal from this time Princess?”

Marinette grinned sleepily and rubbed her face into his chest again, “No one Chaton. I only steal from you.”

“True. My phone, my SD card, my heart.”

Marinette hummed in agreement.

Chat looked up at the photos again, eyebrows furrowed. He couldn’t let it go though. The gears in his head turned. Then suddenly there was a click.

He accidentally threw Marinette straight out of bed as realization dawned.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Along with the sun. Haha. I’m fucking hilarious.  
> Don’t worry, his tail caught her.  
> Marinette still swears the minor whiplash and abrupt wake up call was worth it.  
> Everyone meet Marinette “Just a Guy” Dupain-Cheng.  
> Gonna have to say Oblivio followed by Silencer had me shook.
> 
> A lot of time passes between a lot of the scenes, stuff happens outside of Marinette's bedroom.
> 
> Thank you to my beta-reader Saikonas who betas everything and I don't give him nearly enough appreciation :D


End file.
